Governments and information – around the world, it seems that governments have difficulties accepting the nature of data and information access and flows in a globally networked world. Restricting access to information and data, classifying information according to hierarchy and power levels, and general non-disclosure of information are all forms of interventions which may seem contradictory to the idea of an open and free information space enabled through the internet.

In recent years, though, some governments have changed their information policies and discovered the opportunities of opening up instead of restricting access to information. These new policies adopted by advanced internet economies is based on Open Data, which means freely available and accessible, non-personal data.

Many countries have in the past years changed their information laws and technical formats of public data databases. Open Data policies and practices in Asia, however, vary widely.

The study draws on field research and interviews in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

What are the trends and developments in Open Data in Asia? Which countries make most use of the new Open Data in the region?

The study was supported by Google Hong Kong.

Speaker:

Waltraut Ritter is Research Director at Knowledge Dialogues which she founded in Hong Kong in 1997 specializing on knowledge economy and innovation initiatives for national and international agencies in the public sector

She is visiting faculty in the Knowledge Management and Innovation Ph.D. programme at Bangkok University, and lectures in the M.Sc. in Innovation programme at the Singapore Management University. She was Professor for Knowledge Management at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She holds an MA in Information Science and Sociology from the Free University of Berlin and an MBA from Anglia University, Cambridge. She is a founding member of the New Club of Paris, a knowledge economy research network, the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum, and serves on the Digital21 Strategy advisory board of the Hong Kong Government. She is also a founding member of Opendata Hong Kong.

The study of Open Data in Asia by Waltraut Ritter draws on field research and interviews in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.